Sprint third-quarter profits fall 13%

CBS.MarketWatch.com

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (CBS.MW) -- Sprint said Wednesday that profits fell 13 percent in the third quarter, undercut by losses related to its Global One joint venture and efforts to create a broad-based high-speed network.

In the latest quarter, Sprint said net income fell to $359 million, or 41 cents a share, from $415 million, or 47 cents, a year ago. That was a penny below the 42 cent consensus estimate of analysts surveyed by First Call Corp.

Revenue rose 18 percent to $5.11 billion from $4.34 billion a year earlier for the nation's No. 2 long-distance carrier, which agreed earlier this month to be acquired by MCI WorldCom
WCOM, +0.17%

The move means Sprint will abandon its Global One venture with European partners France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom. It's unclear, however, what WorldCom intends to do with Sprint ION, a high-speed network the carrier is erecting to meet all the communications needs of consumers and businesses.

Sprint's PCS Group
pcs
which offers wireless phone service nationwide, added 720,000 new customers, an 87 percent increase over the 1998 third quarter. The unit ended the quarter with 4.7 million customers.

The PCS Group lost $619 million, or $1.31 a share, up from a pro forma loss of $176 million, or $1.04, a year earlier. That was slightly higher than the $1.23 loss expected by First Call.

Revenue rose to $844 million from $320 million. The average monthly revenue per subscriber was flat at $54.

Operating cash flow, which basically reflects the ability of a company to pay its bills, was a negative $397 million.

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